According to an insider account, the Clinton team, put together the Russia Gate narrative within 24 hours of her defeat (to explain) her unexpected loss. … The scurrilous Trump dossier, prepared by a London opposition research firm, Orbis, and paid for by unidentified Democrat donors, formed a key part of the Clinton narrative: Trump’s sexual and business escapades in Russia had made him a hostage of the Kremlin … . If ordered and paid for by Hillary Clinton associates, … Russia Gate becomes Hillary Gate. …

Hillary and the Orbis Dossier

The Fusion story has been known since Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent … to the Justice Department on March 31, 2017 demanding for his Judiciary Committee all relevant documents on Fusion GPS, the company that managed the Steele dossier against then-candidate Donald Trump. Grassley writes to justify his demand for documents that: “The issue is of particular concern to the Committee given that when Fusion GPS reportedly was acting as an unregistered agent of Russian interests, it appears to have been simultaneously overseeing the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier of allegations of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.” (Emphasis added.)

The role of Fusion GPS and one of its key associates, a former Soviet intelligence officer, must raise the question as to whether the Steele dossier, which was orchestrated by a suspected unregistered agent of Russia, was a plant by Russian intelligence to harm Donald Trump? …

Much of the credibility of the Orbis dossier hinges on Steele’s reputation as a former M15 intelligence agent. (But) Michael Morell, the former acting CIA director, told NBC that Mr. Steele had paid the Russian intelligence sources who provided the information (and) Mr. Steele had no way to judge the veracity of their claims.” …

As someone who has read every word of the Steele Trump dossier and has studied the Soviet Union/Russia for almost a half century, I can say that … the dossier was not, as the press reports, written by Steele. … In Stalin’s day, some of the most valued KGB (NKVD) agents were called “novelists,” for their ability to conjure up fictional plots and improbable tales to use against their enemies. Some of Steele’s sources claim detailed knowledge of the deepest Kremlin secrets, such as Putin’s personal control of Clinton emails or negotiations with Putin’s head of the national oil company. If they truly had such knowledge, why would they “sell” it to Steele? The most likely explanation is that the Steele dossier is the work of Russian intelligence “novelists” charged by the Kremlin with defaming Trump and adding chaos to the American political system.

Mueller’s Difficult Task

… Special Counsel Mueller … is supposed to “investigate Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election.” Given the many accounts of Russian contacts of Trump campaign officials … apparently have lead nowhere over a nine month investigation … , (Murller) should not require much time to rule out coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia state actors. …

On the Clinton/Democratic side, there are a number of unanswered questions related to Russian electoral intervention. Among them is the question of whether the “wiped clean” Clinton e-mails are in Russian hands (as asserted by the Steele dossier), whether the tarmac meeting of Bill Clinton and the Attorney General quashed the investigation of Hillary’s e-mails, and whether the Clintons and Russian uranium interests engaged in quid pro quo and “pay to play” operations.

The most important unanswered question is whether the Clinton campaign funded the Orbis Trump smear campaign and did they understand the campaign could be conducted by Russian intelligence? …

The Fusion-Steele matter is explosive because it suggests that Russia’s most damaging intervention in the 2016 campaign may have been its creation of the Steele Dossier, remarkably paid for by the Clinton campaign! If so, the Clinton campaign (not Trump) was the prime sponsor of Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election.